It was the fourth most searched for
item on the Internet. It was the number
one sell-out item on EBay (where it
was selling and being auctioned off
for prices as high as $5,000 for the
new $400 console, says WebPro News’
technology and business writer Jason
L. Miller). It is fought over, dreamed
of, and hurt for its possession. It
is the Xbox 360.
The Xbox 360 was second to none this
year—except last year at this
time (Christmastime), when it didn’t
hit the markets in time for shoppers,
and forfeited its number-one status
to the ever-popular Sony PlayStation,
reports Miller.
But as with the $150 dollar sneakers
a few years ago, the Xbox 360 may
be too popular (or our culture too
covetous):
In Stafford, Virginia, November saw
an Electronics Boutique getting robbed
at gunpoint—not for cash or
any of the other valuable technology
and gameware, but for two Xbox 360s.
In one unidentified city where lines
of desperate shoppers waited to purchase
the next delivery of Xboxes, one dweeb
who had already purchased his held
it out the window of the car he and
friends were driving from the store
in. The show-off dropped the box and
an agile-footed teen swooped in, scooped
up the 360 and ran off with his now
brand new toy.
Outside of one Walmart, reports blogger
soccerbob, three friends of the writer
were held up by two armed man, who,
he says, “only wanted the Xbox.”
And in North Dakota, as Jason Miller
also reports, a seventeen-year-old
who had been lucky enough to purchase
one of the first Xbox 360s fresh off
the newly-stocked shelves was punched
in the face and robbed of his new
gaming platform by two “assailants”.
It is now New Year’s Eve in
the US, and the emailed promotion
to “Get what you REALLY wanted”
[for Xmas] speaks to the continued
popularity of the Xbox 360: the first
auction feature has a bid of $700,
with a “BUY IT NOW” price
of $800. The second photo offers the
same at the high bid at $575…and
the photo shows a warehouse stack
of em. And the third listing has the
Xbox 360 going for $1,300.
Are these the stolen Xboxes now being
pawned off for 1 and ½, 2,
and 3times the store price? Are these
the ones we gullible line-standers
waited hours for, only to be turned
away empty-handed, as he first ten
people in line got the first fifty
(to sell on EBay…NOT to give
as gifts)?
Are we back to the materialism and
greed of pre-9-1-1? Have we misplaced
our values again, passed them off
onto unknowing children who just want
to engage in the ADD activity that
is gaming? Or are we merely very,
very fortunate to live in a culture
where good art (in good games with
good graphics), cutting edge technology
as entertainment, and Christmas are
limitless sources of pleasure and
reward for being good all year, working
hard, studying hard, and taking out
he trash when Mommy asks the first
time?
